AMD Radeon Pro 5500M vs AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT Comparison

The Verdict

The AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT is the clear performance winner in this comparison. It takes 8 of the 9 head-to-head benchmark matchups, with particularly dominant leads in DirectX 11, GPU compute, and DirectX 12 workloads. The Radeon Pro 5500M wins only one test, Vulkan, where it leads by 20.9%. For gaming and general compute, the RX 7600M XT is the obvious choice. The Pro 5500M's single Vulkan victory makes it interesting only for workloads that specifically favor that API.

Architecture Differences

The RX 7600M XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture using the Navi 33 chip, while the Radeon Pro 5500M uses RDNA 1.0 with the Navi 14 chip. This is a two-generation architectural gap. The RX 7600M XT is fabricated on a 6 nm process at TSMC, whereas the Pro 5500M uses a 7 nm process, also at TSMC. The transistor counts reflect the generational difference: the Navi 33 chip packs 13,300 million transistors on a 204 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 65.2M per mm². The Navi 14 chip has 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die, for a density of 40.5M per mm².

The RX 7600M XT is part of the Radeon RX 7000 series with the codename Hotpink Bonefish, and belongs to the Navi Mobile (RX 7000M) generation. The Pro 5500M is from the Radeon Pro Mac (Navi Mobile) generation. The RX 7600M XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Pro 5500M only reaches DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Ray tracing is another differentiator. The RX 7600M XT has 32 dedicated ray tracing cores; the Pro 5500M has none. The RX 7600M XT also has more shading units (2048 versus 1536), more texture mapping units (128 versus 96), and double the render output units (64 versus 32).

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The biggest single win for the RX 7600M XT comes in Geekbench OpenCL, where it scores 74,869 against the Pro 5500M's 31,088. That is a 140.8% advantage, more than double the score. This is the largest delta in the entire head-to-head set and strongly indicates the RX 7600M XT is in a different performance class for OpenCL compute tasks.

PassMark GPU Compute shows a similar story: the RX 7600M XT scores 7,140 versus 3,240, a 120.4% lead. DirectX 11 is even more lopsided in percentage terms, with the RX 7600M XT scoring 137 versus 42, a 226.2% advantage. DirectX 12 shows a 100% improvement (58 versus 29), and DirectX 10 is 111.1% higher (76 versus 36). Even older DirectX 9 workloads favor the RX 7600M XT by 82.3% (175 versus 96).

The 2D graphics test, PassMark G2D, shows a smaller but still clear win: 894 versus 648, a 38% advantage. The main 3D test, PassMark G3D, gives the RX 7600M XT a 106.6% lead with 13,907 versus 6,732.

The Pro 5500M's only head-to-head win is in Geekbench Vulkan, where it scores 35,134 against the RX 7600M XT's 27,793. That is a 20.9% margin in favor of the older card. This is notable because it runs counter to every other test, suggesting the Pro 5500M has some architectural advantage in Vulkan, or the RX 7600M XT has a driver or implementation weakness there.

Overall, the RX 7600M XT has an average benchmark score of 12,710 across all recorded tests, compared to 11,528 for the Pro 5500M. The RX 7600M XT sits at the 52nd percentile among all GPUs, while the Pro 5500M is at the 51st percentile. Their nearest rivals also show how close these cards are to their respective peer groups: the RX 7600M XT's closest competitor is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 with an average score of 12,773, only 0.5% higher. The Pro 5500M's nearest rival is the NVIDIA Tesla K20c at 11,479, which the Pro 5500M edges by 0.4%.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins more benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT wins 8 of 9 head-to-head tests. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M wins only one, the Geekbench Vulkan test.

Q: How big is the performance gap in compute workloads?

A: The RX 7600M XT leads by 140.8% in Geekbench OpenCL and by 120.4% in PassMark GPU Compute. Both are massive margins.

Q: Is the Radeon Pro 5500M better at anything?

A: Yes, it wins the Geekbench Vulkan test by 20.9%, scoring 35,134 versus 27,793. It also has a higher Geekbench Metal score of 38,235, although that test is not part of the head-to-head comparison.

Q: Do both cards support the same modern APIs?

A: No. The RX 7600M XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Pro 5500M only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: What is the production status of each card?

A: The RX 7600M XT is listed as Active, while the Radeon Pro 5500M is End-of-life.

Q: How does each card compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 7600M XT's average score of 12,710 is 0.5% below the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 (12,773) and 0.7% above the NVIDIA Tesla K20Xm (12,625). The Pro 5500M's average of 11,528 is 0.4% above the NVIDIA Tesla K20c (11,479) and 1.3% below the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (11,680).

Where Each One Wins

The RX 7600M XT dominates in every DirectX generation tested. In DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12, it beats the Pro 5500M by margins ranging from 82.3% to 226.2%. This makes it the clear choice for gaming across both older titles and modern DX12 games. The 100% lead in DirectX 12 and the 106.6% lead in PassMark G3D reinforce this.

For compute-heavy tasks, the RX 7600M XT is also the pick. Its 140.8% OpenCL lead and 120.4% GPU compute lead show it can handle OpenCL workloads at more than double the speed. The 32 ray tracing cores on the RX 7600M XT, absent on the Pro 5500M, also make it the only option here for ray-traced content.

The Pro 5500M's territory is narrower. Its 20.9% Vulkan win suggests that if a specific application or game engine is heavily optimized for Vulkan, the older card may deliver better frame rates in that particular scenario. Its higher Geekbench Metal score (38,235) also points to macOS Metal performance, which is relevant for Mac users, though that test is not in the head-to-head set.

For 2D desktop workloads, the RX 7600M XT leads by 38% in PassMark G2D, so even non-gaming productivity benefits from choosing it.

Specification Differences

The most striking specification gap is in FP32 compute. The RX 7600M XT delivers 20.23 TFLOPS, while the Pro 5500M manages 4.454 TFLOPS. That is roughly a 4.5x difference in raw floating-point throughput. FP16 follows the same pattern: 40.45 TFLOPS versus 8.909 TFLOPS, both at 2:1 ratio.

Clock speeds tell a similar story. The RX 7600M XT has a base clock of 1280 MHz and a boost of 2469 MHz, with a game clock of 2023 MHz. The Pro 5500M runs at 1000 MHz base and 1450 MHz boost, with no game clock listed. Memory clocks also differ: the RX 7600M XT runs at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective), while the Pro 5500M is at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective).

Memory bandwidth favors the RX 7600M XT at 288.0 GB/s versus 192.0 GB/s, despite both using 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. The pixel rate is 158.0 GPixel/s for the RX 7600M XT versus 46.40 GPixel/s for the Pro 5500M. Texture rate is 316.0 GTexel/s versus 139.2 GTexel/s.

Power draw also differs. The RX 7600M XT has a TDP of 120 W, while the Pro 5500M is rated at 85 W. Both use no power connectors and are portable-device dependent for display outputs. The RX 7600M XT connects via PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Pro 5500M uses PCIe 4.0 x8. The RX 7600M XT is listed as an IGP slot width; the Pro 5500M has no slot width listed.

Release dates reflect their generations: the RX 7600M XT launched on 2023-01-03, while the Pro 5500M launched on 2019-11-12. The RX 7600M XT lists Polaris Mobile as its predecessor; the Pro 5500M has no predecessor listed. Neither card has a successor listed.